It has been known to provide devices for automatically creating a finished mail piece. Such devices range from industrial scale units capable of producing a large throughput (high output) of mail pieces for distribution to a wide audience down to so-called SOHO (Small Office Home Office) mail creation devices having much smaller output capacity.
The functionality of mail piece creation devices typically increases as the size of the device increases. Industrial scale mail piece creation devices represent a production facility in their own right. These facilities are configured to print large numbers of mail items for delivery to individual addressees. Each mail item is printed, collated, accumulated as necessary with other mail items, folded and inserted into an individual envelope. The envelope may bear an address window for displaying an address printed on the mail item, or may be separately addressed, in which case the envelope must be properly addressed to the intended recipient of the enclosed mail items. Once the mail item is inserted into its envelope, the envelope is automatically sealed and processed for delivery. Known devices of this kind are capable of producing individual mail items properly addressed for delivery to large target audiences, perhaps in mail shots of tens or hundreds of thousands of mail pieces, for example as would be required by large service organizations such as banks, utilities companies and governments.
On a more modest scale, SOHO mail piece creation devices have been proposed for home and office use. Such devices are often also referred to as “desktop” mail piece creation devices, although they may, in fact, be floor-standing. Whereas industrial scale mail piece creation devices typically require a dedicated team of highly trained operators in order to maintain and run the production process, SOHO mail piece creation devices are intended to be facile to use and maintain, for operation by non-dedicated staff with a minimum of training. These devices are typically of the scale to produce a few thousand mail pieces per day, and thus find greatest applicability to medium-sized companies reaching a more modest target audience. Whereas the largest mail piece creation devices can achieve the full functionality described above, and are able to process a range of sizes of envelopes and sheets of paper, as well as being able to insert additional items into the envelopes via special inlet feeds, most SOHO mail piece creation devices are typically of a reduced functionality. Usually, this will entail the mail items being pre-printed, and then loaded into appropriate inlet feed trays. Similarly, the devices may be restricted to one, or maybe two, acceptable standard sizes for the mail items and envelopes from which the mail pieces are to be created. Furthermore, SOHO mail piece creation devices are typically designed to deliver large numbers of an identical mail piece to many receivers, rather than for creating recipient-specific mail pieces.
Despite having been labeled as SOHO devices, very few existing mail piece creation devices are particularly suited for home use, and it would be very uncommon to find such a device as a piece of household equipment. However, household-related written correspondence continues in vast quantities, despite the recent advances in electronic communication, and a market exists for mail piece creation devices that would be suitable for individual or home use.
The limiting factor in reducing the size of mail piece creation devices for such suitability has been in the need to retain adequate functionality in the device. Within such mail piece creation devices, each particular function in the above-noted process is carried out by separate mechanical system, requiring a corresponding proportion of space within such a machine for each paper handling or envelope handling process that is to be carried out. One such mechanism is the sealer apparatus that is used to close and seal the flap of an envelope, once the contents of the envelope have been inserted.
A typical known envelope sealer receives an envelope along a path, with the open flap of the envelope at the trailing end with respect to the envelope feeding direction. The envelope is typically fed around a curved path portion into a straight insertion section, so that the main body of the envelope is held in an aligned configuration at the insertion location. As the envelope is fed so that its main body rests within the insertion chamber, it is halted at a position where the open flap remains partially within the curved path preceding the straight insertion chamber, to thereby hold the envelope in an open configuration, with the mouth of the envelope held open. Mail items can then be inserted into the envelope, into the open mouth. To assist in the insertion operation, insertion fingers may be inserted into the mouth of the envelope, to assist in guiding a mail item there into, while the flap is usually held securely in the open configuration, typically by a roller pair located in the curved path.
Once the mail item has been inserted into the envelope, the envelope must typically be fed further along the feed path, to bring the hinge between the envelope flap and the main body into line with a sealing roller pair. The envelope is then fed hinge-first through the nip of the sealing roller pair, to close the flap to the main body, thereby sealing the envelope. Where a traditional gum-sealed envelope is to be used, a moistener is provided during this operation, to moisten the gum so that the envelope flap will seal.
Due to the requirement for further transporting the envelope to bring the hinge into alignment with feed rollers, and in order to feed the envelope hinge-first into the roller nip, such a system is unsuitable for sealing envelopes containing very thick or non-flexible mail items, due to the need for the mail item to pass around a curved path so as to enter the roller nip hinge-first. Moreover, the various transporting, flap holding and flap sealing operations, including, where applicable, a flap moistening operation, require a complex series of mechanical feed devices for transporting and feeding the envelope and contents, resulting in fairly large and complex mechanical arrangements.